The Sleepover
by bookboysarebetter
Summary: After the war, Biana learns that Sophie has never had a just-for-fun sleepover, so she invites the gang over to her house. See what chaos ensues at... "The Sleepover!" Note: This is a Sokeefe fanfic. All characters and settings belong to Shannon Messenger.
1. Prologue

**A/N This is my first fanfiction, all rights reserved to the wonderful Shannon Messenger. This story also may be found on Wattpad.**

"You've never had a sleepover? Never?" Biana asked over her imparter.

"Well, there was that one sleepover at Dex's a while ago. But that was mostly for Black Swan business, so it really didn't count," Sophie replied.

"That was your _first_ sleepover? At age fourteen?" Biana asked, becoming increasingly urgent with each sentence.

"Yep. I wasn't very popular in the Forbidden Cities," Sophie said.

"Well, that has definitely changed," Biana remarked. After the defeat of the Neverseen, Sophie had become an international political figure as well as an elvin celebrity, rivaling the Vacker family in fame.

"No kidding," Sophie sighed. The newfound fame was not unusual, but it was just as tiring as being the Council's "Public Enemy Number One."

"Anyways, that has got to change. I'm going to invite you, Dex, Keefe, Fitz, Tam, and Linh over for the first official post-elvin war sleepover," Biana declared. "I'll call you when I've gotten more details."

Over the imparter Sophie could see Biana rustling papers around her room, already preparing for the sleepover.

"Umm… okay," Sophie said. Biana didn't seem to be giving her a choice, did she?

"See you later!" Biana said, and with that, she shut off her imparter.


	2. Welcome to Everglen!

**A/N Amazing title, I know. If you guys have any** _ **constructive**_ **criticism, let me know!**

"Hey Sophie," Fitz said as he opened the golden gates to Everglen. "Keefe, Tam, Linh, and Biana are already inside."

"Cool," Sophie replied nonchalantly. She walked to the mansion while chatting with Fitz, albeit a bit awkwardly. At age fourteen, Sophie had started dating Fitz after completing their Cognate work. It had been a good relationship, but they had broken up when Sophie was fifteen after they realized they had kept too many secrets from each other, whether it had been their unsavory opinion about the other's date night outfit or their secret birthday surprise for one another. It had threatened their Cognate status and they had to rebuild each other's trust for two months to return to their full bond. Sophie was sixteen now, and while there were no hard feelings between the two (she would have known), it was understandably awkward to speak one-on-one with each other.

They soon reached the front door, which Biana opened with a smile and bouncy expression.

"Hey, Sophie!" Biana exclaimed. "I'm _so_ excited for tonight! Oh, look, Dex is here!"

Fitz stalked off to open the gates for Dex, who had just materialized outside.

"This should be good," Biana said with a small giggle. Dex's hatred for Fitz had made somewhat of a reappearance since Sophie's breakup. Dex had not approved of the couple, and had been predicting the breakup for months before the split.

"No kidding," Sophie muttered back. The two had reappeared and were not looking at each other, both glaring. Biana stifled a laugh.

"Foster! I've been waiting for you!" Keefe said as he walked up to the doorway, having heard all of the commotion. "Bangs Boy was getting _boooring_! Missed me?"

Sophie blushed.

Keefe and Fitz had just finished their second year of the Elite levels. Sophie would never admit it, but she _had_ missed them a lot. She was glad she had the summer with them and her other friends before she had to pack off for the Elite levels.

"I see you have," Keefe said. He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows for emphasis.

"Shut up," Sophie replied as she playfully slapped his arm. Biana coughed, a small frown painting her face.

"Well, that's everyone," Fitz said awkwardly, looking just as uncomfortable as Biana.

Keefe, clearly oblivious to the sibling's discomfort, draped his arm around Sophie as the group made their way into the magnificent house.


	3. You've Been Chopped

**A/N Thank you guys for reviewing! Here's the replies:**

 **To AlwaysTrustSoKeefe: Thank you! Sokeefe for LIFE.**

 **To Stars and Alicorns: Thanks so much! Yes, the story is Foster-Keefe.**

 **To Smiles (guest): Thanks! Yeah, when I wrote the first couple chapters, I was still getting into the groove of things, but I've already written the whole fic, and I can tell you, the chapters get _way_ longer.**

As they entered one of the many living rooms, Tam and Linh looked up from their thumb war and greeted the newcomers. Linh went up and hugged everyone, while Tam settled for a slight wave.

"Now that everyone's here, what should we do?" Dex asked, plopping down on a couch.

"Decorate rifflepuffs! I _may_ have gotten my mom to bake some. And by some I mean about a hundred. I figured we would be hungry, " Biana explained, sitting down opposite him.

"A hundred? And we have to eat all of them?" Sophie exclaimed, not sure whether to feel excited or nauseous.

"Challenge accepted!" Keefe announced. "Where are they?"

"In the kitchen. Come on!" Biana explained.

The group trotted down to the kitchen, which was set out with plates of rifflepuffs that Sophie had to restrain herself from gobbling down right away. Fitz and Biana dug around the drawers, looking for frosting and sprinkles, which apparently had appeared in elvin kitchens long before it had in human ones. Meanwhile, Keefe was making beelines for various pastries while Sophie grabbed his arm and slapped him, trying to make him be patient while simultaneously trying to make Tam, Linh, and Dex stop laughing at her failed attempts.

After about ten minutes of this, everything was set out and everyone was poised to create their sugary masterpieces. They were about to start when Linh had an amazing idea. Sophie had gotten everyone into Food Network cooking and baking competitions after showing them multiple episodes of Chopped, Cake Wars, and Iron Chef after having Dex turn all of their imparters into unique tablets with games, internet, videos, and of course, the original imparter feature.

"We should make this into a decorating contest!" Linh had said excitedly. "But who should be the judge?"

"I will," volunteered Tam. "I'm not a fan of contests, so while you guys are competing, I'll make mine for fun."

"We should have a theme," Sophie said. "How about summer?"

"It's settled, then," Keefe said. "Let the contest begin!"

The next hour was filled with shouts, fights over sprinkles, and concentrated work over rifflepuffs swirled with beautiful-and not so beautiful-designs. By the time everyone was done decorating, Sophie had frosting dyed hands, rainbow sprinkles on her arms, blue frosting in a big dot on her nose, courtesy of Keefe, and chocolatey brown sprinkles in her hair, also courtesy of Keefe. Her fellow competitors looked similar, minus the nose and hair.

"First up…" Keefe said, miming a drumroll with his hands, "Biana!"

Biana's flower rifflepuffs were messy, to say the least.

"I'm not that great at art," she admitted.

"No… they're, um, fine," Tam declared uneasily. "Solid, err… six outta ten!"

Keefe leaned closer to Sophie and whispered into her ear, "I think he has _other_ motives for giving her such a good score. He _liiikes_ her."

"Don't say anything, though," she whispered back. "I know you don't like Tam that much, but I'm sure he'd be _humiliated_ if you teased him."

"Fine."

Next up was Dex, who had decorated his rifflepuffs with average looking Pure trees, then Sophie, with cute smiling suns, Fitz with birds, and then Linh with beach waves, which apparently were a sign of summer in the elven world, too. Finally, there came Keefe, with the most stunning palm trees anyone had ever seen.

"I really wanted to hate this," said Tam, who looked conflicted. "But this is _good._ Really good."

"He's an artist," Sophie said, smiling at Keefe. He blushed.

Fitz frowned.

"I need a moment to decide the winner," Tam said. He walked out of the room and immediately came back in. "I _hate_ to say this… but Keefe won!"

Keefe immediately started doing a dance that would likely be in Sophie's memory forever.

"I'm amazing! I won! I beat you!" Keefe sang at the top of his lungs. "Bootsandcatandbootsandcatsand…"

Sophie rolled her eyes, grinning as he danced across the room.

"We should _not_ have put the Siri feature on Keefe's imparter," Sophie said to Fitz. When he was finished with his victory dance, the friends started eating the rifflepuffs, which were soon gone, thanks to Della's special talent for baking.

Sophie's stomach was considerably larger when she left the room.


	4. Base Quest Strategies

**A/N Okay, this chapter is like the most stereotypical vomit in the world. I've never written anything with romance and I'm not so good with the whole 'taking it slow' thing. So yeah... sorry to anyone who dies from all of the cheese.**

"What should we do now?" Dex asked.

"How about Base Quest?" Fitz said. "I know this cool variation where we can play with more than two teams, so we can just pair up."

Sophie noticed he was looking directly at her. She wasn't sure whether she liked that or not.

"I call Foster!" Keefe said, raising his hand excitedly. He leaned closer to Sophie and muttered in her ear, "I need to talk to you."

"Fine..." Sophie agreed grudgingly. "Just this once."

She supposed that Keefe would be a better partner than Fitz at the moment. He usually was... wait, what?

"Sophie. Sooophie!" Biana said, waving her hand in front of Sophie's face. "You spaced out there for a second."

"Probably just daydreaming about me," said Keefe.

Sophie blushed furiously. "Shut up!"

"Told ya," Keefe muttered to Fitz.

"Anyways," Biana said, pretending to ignore Keefe's comment. "Fitz and I are together, and Tam and Linh are together. Dex doesn't want to play."

"Lost control of my levitation in PE," said Dex. "It really hurts, but my dad says it's not bad enough that I have to call Elwin. It should clear up in a few days."

"Tam and Linh are going to hide the flag," said Biana. "When I say go, we all need to go outside and talk strategy with our partners. Ready, set... GO!"

Sophie and Keefe raced outside, finding refuge in a cave on the outskirts of the extravagant lawn.

"So, I think that I should track Linh's mind while you scope out Fitz and -"

"I like you."

"What?" Sophie said urgently. He didn't mean it in _that_ way, did he? She straightened herself out, reminding herself that Keefe could feel her panic. "Of course you do. We're friends."

Keefe smirked. "I think we both know that's not what I mean."

"Than what _do_ you mean?"

Keefe sighed. "You _still_ haven't figured it out, have you?"

"You likeme. Like, _like_ like me," Sophie said quietly.

"Yep."

"Oh."

"We both should have seen this coming," Keefe said. "If you haven't noticed, I've been trying to tell you for years."

There was a long pause, and Sophie wasn't sure what to think. She felt a little weirded out, but as Keefe had said, they both had expected some sort of confession, but only to some degree. She guessed that she had known that Keefe had feelings for her, but had never wanted to acknowledge it. She just didn't know how she felt about him.

"Keefe," she said in the smallest voice possible. "Can you, um, take a reading of me? I can use my Enhancing to make it clearer."

"Why?" Keefe asked carefully.

"I... need to know how I feel about all of this."

Sophie carefully slipped off her gloves, and lightly grabbed Keefe's arm. Keefe's eyes closed and his mouth went into a hard line of deep concentration. Sophie tugged out an eyelash and tried not to think about how close they were. After about a minute Keefe opened his eyes and his mouth stretched into the widest smile.

"Wait. No. Nonononononono!" Sophie replied in an urgent haze.

"No trying to deny it, Foster. You _like_ me," Keefe said, grinning like an idiot.

Sophie sat down on a rock, trying to comprehend the new information. _She liked Keefe_. Keefe, whose grin had quickly faded, sat down next to her and asked, "Wait, am I really that bad?"

Sophie turned to face Keefe, giving him a huge hug before saying quietly, "Of course not."

"Then why are your emotions so freaked out right now?" Keefe asked, still looking hurt.

"I just... you're the first person I've had a crush on since Fitz. And I... and I don't want us to end up that badly. Have you seen us? We say there's no hard feelings, but he clearly still likes me, and we both don't have a bond as strong as before the breakup."

"Trust me, we're not going to end up like you and Fitz. We're not Cognates, so you don't have to tell me whether or not you like my hair. Although you do," Keefe said.

Sophie wrapped her hands around Keefe's head and mussed up his perfectly tousled hair.

"Hey!"

"Sorry that I'm not sorry that I messed up your hair."

Keefe grinned softly and then leaned closer to Sophie, putting his arm around her and resting his head on her shoulders.

"What was that for?" she asked, confused at the sudden change in mood.

"I dunno," he said, breathing in the scent of Sophie's hair. "I'm just happy. I mean, you're the first person who's ever liked me."

"We both know that's not true."

"No. _Really_ liked me. Not just for my looks, or the way I act on the outside. For who I am."

At that moment, Sophie realized how truly alone Keefe had been. She had a feeling that he was not only talking about how she was the first person to like him, but how she was the first person to care about him, truly care about him, love him, even. His parents had emotionally abandoned him, so he had taken refuge with the Vackers. But they were not his real family, because they were still perfect without him. But when Sophie had come along, he had felt wanted, _needed_. They were their own little group of outsiders.

"I'm sorry," Sophie murmured, pulling him into a hug.

"For what?" he said, wrapping his arms around her neck.

"I don't know. I'm sorry that I'm the first person that has ever liked you for who you are. You deserve better," she said.

"I've always liked that about you," Keefe whispered absentmindedly into her hair. "You want people to feel wanted."

They stayed like that for a while.


	5. Truth or Dare

**A/N Be warned... This one's long. Also, I'd just like to say that this story has been finished writing and if you want to see the piece in its entirety sooner rather than later, I encourage you to go over to Wattpad and take a look.**

 **Here's the review replies:**

 **To Ryeflight: Yup, I'm continuing the story. I'm actually writing a sequel! Yeah, there definitely needs to be more Sokeefe stories. Also, I'm really glad you liked the base quest chapter, because I don't consider myself very good at writing ship stories.**

 **To Mysterious M: HEEEEEEEEEY. Thanks for the compliment. Yeah, I'm Project-Moonlark's story. It's SO GOOD. Nope, I'm not into Star Trek, Star Wars, or Max Steel. I keep saying I'm going to watch Star Wars but I really don't have time. Horrible excuse, I know.**

 **To K.J.: Thank you! Team Foster Keefe ftw!**

 **To twinkletoestbh: Thank you! I love your story, "The Matchmakers"**

 **To Guest: Thank you! Sokeefe is awesome.**

Sophie sneaked up behind the tree that the flag was hidden and levitated into the air, keeping her thoughts carefully trained on Tam and Linh's locations. They were currently trying to throw off Fitz and Biana, and Keefe was monitoring them all to keep them away from the base. Up, up, up... got it!

"We win!" Sophie shouted.

Keefe, Fitz, Tam, Linh, and Biana appeared from behind the trees, with Keefe whooping about, and the other two teams trudging around gloomily, grumbling about Sophie and Keefe's win.

The group walked inside, where Dex was fiddling with his imparter. Seeing the annoyed faces of everyone except Sophie and Keefe, he said, "Sophie won again?"

"Uh huh," Biana grumbled.

"Team Foster-Keefe for the win!" Keefe exclaimed.

"So, now that we've had our Base Quest beatdown, what's next on the ol' schedule, Biana?" Fitz asked.

"Truth or dare!" Biana said. "I call going first!"

"Okay, then, truth or dare?" Sophie asked, carefully sitting down on the floor, which was covered in nuts and bolts, courtesy of Dex. The rest followed her lead, all sitting in a circle facing each other.

"Truth. I do _not_ want to ruin my tunic," Biana said.

"Okay. What is the worst grade you've ever gotten?" Sophie asked, choosing to start with a less grueling question.

"I got a seventy three on my Elvin History exam in Level 2. I had completely forgotten to study because I was so busy trying to manifest. And, you know, help you save the elven world," Biana said. "The only reason I wasn't expelled was because Dame Alina was still headmaster, and, you know, her and my dad..."

Keefe snickered.

"So, who's going next?" Sophie asked.

"Well, you just asked Biana, so I think you should go next," Linh said.

"Okay, but who's going to ask me the question?" Sophie asked.

"I will!" Keefe said excitedly. "Truth or dare, Foster, truth or dare?"

There was no way that Sophie was going to ask for a dare from Keefe. He was absolutely evil when it came to pranks and dares. But what if he asked her something embarrassing if she chose truth? No, he wouldn't do that... hopefully. But being embarassed was better than being hurt-she did _not_ want to leave the sleepover with Elwin.

"Truth." _Please don't embarrass me,_ please _don't embarrass me_ , Sophie thought.

"Who do you like?" Keefe asked.

"Hey, you already know that!" Sophie answered angrily. "Wait, um, did anyone actually, like, _hear_ that?"

Tam smirked. "Loud and clear."

Sophie hid behind her hair.

"Anyways, _we_ don't know, Sophie," said Biana. "So tell _us_!"

"Fine. I like... Keefe." Sophie blushed and hid behind her hair even more. She looked up at her friend's faces. Tam was giving her a knowing look, and Linh was giving her an encouraging smile, although the rest of the group was looking... _not so friendly_. Dex looked disappointed, Biana had a wobbly lower lip, and Fitz looked... angry. Really angry. Meanwhile, Keefe was smiling, but was obviously uncomfortable. Sophie pulled out an eyelash.

"Oh..." Biana said.

"That's great, Sophie!" Linh exclaimed, oblivious to the frowning faces surrounding her. "How long have you liked him?"

"Err... " Sophie trailed off. How long _had_ she liked him? When she had stayed with the Black Swan she had certainly exhibited feelings for him, albeit small ones. And she had definitely felt horrible when he had left for the Neverseen. She supposed her feelings were pushed to the side when she had dated Fitz, but they had slowly reappeared after the breakup. So she had liked him since... age fourteen? "I've liked him for about a year and a half."

"Wait. We broke up six months ago. You liked _him_ while you were dating _me_?" Fitz asked, glaring at Sophie.

"Of course not!" she snapped, feeling defensive. " _For your information_ , until a couple months ago, six, to be exact, my feelings for him were on the backburner because I liked _you_! I wasn't going to date you if I had more feelings for someone else!"

"Sorry," Fitz mumbled.

"That was... quite an outburst," Biana said, who still looked disappointed.

"Sorry. I just... don't like being accused of things like that," Sophie answered shamefully.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," Keefe said.

"Of course _he_ sides with her," Dex muttered.

Linh sighed. "Can we just stop fighting about Sophie's love life and move on? This is supposed to be fun!"

"She's right, guys. Let's truth or dare someone else. I think Keefe's next. Who wants to ask him questions?" Sophie said.

"I will. Truth or dare?" Tam asked, turning to face Keefe.

"Dare, of course. What else did you think I would pick?" Keefe said cockily.

"Okay," Tam said. "I dare you to let me take a shadowvapor reading of you."

"You're still going to hold onto that? Dude, it's been like, a year and a half since anyone had mentioned that!" Keefe replied dubiously.

"Baaaaaawk. Baaaaaawk. Bawk bawk baaaaaawk!" Tam taunted, standing up and strutting like a chicken.

"Fine."

Tam stretched his shadow over Keefe's, and closed his eyes. After a minute, he opened his eyes and snickered.

"That was cold, man!" Keefe said. "Why didn't anyone warn me?"

"It's funnier that way," Biana said, shrugging her shoulders and grinning cheekily.

"What are the results?" Dex asked.

"Keefe," Tam announced. "You have more shadowvapor in your brain than anybody I've ever taken a reading of."

"Cool!"

Sophie turned her head away from the group to hide her giggle. As she turned she saw others doing the same.

"You also have a lot of light, but not enough to cancel out the darkness like Sophie," Tam explained.

"Buzzkill."

"Anyways, Tam's next. I can truth or dare him," Linh said.

Tam groaned. "Whyyy?"

"What's so bad about that?" Sophie asked.

"Linh's _brutal_ when it comes to this kind of stuff," Tam explained.

"Wow, really?" Fitz asked.

"Hey, I'm not all sunshine and rainbows, you know," Linh said, smiling softly. Her eyes truly did look mischievous. "Anyways... truth or dare, Tam?"

"Um..." Tam's eyes squeezed together in concentration. "Dare. I don't want all of my secrets to be revealed like Sophie over there."

"Hey!"

"Did your secrets get revealed?"

"Yeah," Sophie grumbled.

"So you shouldn't be offended."

"Whatever."

Linh grinned and then announced her dare, "I dare you to go outside and lick the ground. Twice."

"Fine," Tam grumbled.

Slowly he walked to the door, glaring fiercely at Linh. The rest of the friends surrounded him as he walked out the door and scoffed, "It's raining! I have to lick the _mud_?"

"Oh, come on. You helped defeat the Neverseen, you can do this," Sophie said, punching his arm.

"Or can he?" Keefe joking muttered to Sophie, clearly enjoying seeing Tam suffer.

Slowly Tam keeled to the ground and flicked his tongue against the sloshy ground. He promptly drew back and started to gag. Biana snickered. "You barely even touched that! Do it again, the right way!"

"You're siding with _her_?" Tam said, pointing at Linh while shaking his head.

"Yep. Now _do the dare_."

"Fine..."

Tam licked the ground once more, this time taking a longer while to do so. Remembering that his dare had been to do it twice, he swooped in again. After a bout of unpleasant gagging, he started glaring pointedly at Linh again.

"Told you I was good at dares," Linh whispered to Sophie.

"Linh's turn! Whoever asks her, please give her something horrible," Tam said.

"I'll ask her!" Dex said. "Truth or-"

"Don't even bother asking me about dare; after what Tam said, I pick truth!" Linh interrupted.

"If you had to pick between all of the boys in the room besides your brother, who would you date?" Dex ( **A/N autocorrect tried to change Dex to Dec** ) asked mischievously.

"What?" Linh squeaked. She kept her eyes on the ground as she answered, "Fitz."

Fitz's face turned a deep shade of crimson. "Wait, what?"

Keefe smirked and wriggled his eyebrows. "Happy?"

"I, um..."

"Can we just move on?" said Linh, looking like she wanted to disappear.

"Yeah, can we just move on?" Tam asked, looking regretful that he had encouraged his sister's embarrassment.

"I'm the only one who hasn't asked or gone yet," Fitz said, happy to change the subject. "So, truth or dare, Dex?"

"Dare," Dex said.

"Okay," Fitz answered, contemplating the possibilities for a moment before saying, "I dare you to say one nice thing about me."

Sophie snickered, as did Biana.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me!" Dex groaned.

"There has to be something you like about Fitz," Linh said.

"I..." Dex said. "I like that he respects Sophie. Even though he broke up with her, and obviously still has a crush on her-"

"Hey!"

"It's true. Anyways, he doesn't make any moves like an idiot, and he tries to be okay with the fact that Sophie and Keefe are obviously a couple."

Sophie blushed.

"Thank you. Anyways, Biana is the only person who hasn't given someone a dare yet, so whaddaya got, little sister?" Fitz asked.

"Truth or dare?" Biana asked inquisitively.

"Dare," Fitz said proudly.

"Grab Sophie's iPod and profess your undying love for a random person over text," Biana said.

"This should be good," Dex snickered.

Sophie handed Fitz her phone. He cringed as he typed a random number into the device. Once he finished, the rest of the group started shouting suggestions as to what Fitz was going to write.

"Forever and always!"

"I send you smooches!"

"Okay? Okay."

"What?"

"It's a human thing, just write it."

By the time Fitz was finished, the letter was horrible and sappy. It wrote: _My dearest love, you are the most wonderful thing ever to happen to me. Okay? Okay. We are forever and always and I love you. My love for you is undying, and if you ever leave me, I don't know what I'll do. I send you smooches._

Sophie stifled a snicker as Fitz pressed send. Surprisingly, the person on the other end of the line answered immediately, with a hilarious sentiment: _I feel exactly the same way as you. I send you smooches, too._ After about a minute, the person replied to her own text with: _Isn't this the part where you propose to me?_

Keefe laughed out loud. Sophie grabbed her iPod, prompting Fitz to say, "Oh, thanks for deleting the conversation."

Sophie chuckled. "Oh, no, I'm not deleting it, I'm taking a screenshot of it!"

Fitz groaned.


	6. Collecting Pillows

"Well, we don't have any more activities planned, so I guess it's time for bed!" Biana said cheerfully. Then she frowned and said, "Wait, it's only, like, eight o'clock ( **A/N Do elves have any way of telling time?** ). We need something else to do before we get ready to go to sleep."

"Oh, I know!" Sophie said. "We should totally make a pillow fort!"

"A pillow _what_ now?" Tam asked confusedly.

"A pillow fort," Sophie explained. "Is pretty much what it sounds like. A fort made of pillows. Usually people use blankets, too. And tape. Lots of tape. Sometimes they tie blankets to chairs to make a roof and walls, and then cover the floor with pillows. I've never actually made one, though. I've only seen people in movies make them, but I know that a lot of people make them in real life, too. "

"Cool!" Fitz said. "Let's start!"

The group swarmed around the house, dividing into groups, looking for various materials. Fitz and Sophie were looking for pillows, Biana and Tam looking for blankets, and Dex, Keefe, and Linh looking for chairs. Sophie scampered around the living room looking for pillows, until she realized that Fitz wasn't doing anything. She stared at him expectantly and asked, "So, you going to tell me why you aren't doing anything?"

Fitz smirked. "No, I was just planning to stand here and stare at you while you look for pillows. Yes, I think I might tell you why I'm not doing anything."

"So?"

"What's going on with you and Keefe?" He asked, furrowing his brow.

Sophie sighed. "I don't really know. When we were playing base quest we both agreed that we liked each other, but we still haven't decided if we're dating or not."

"Oh." Fitz frowned. They stood there for a while, looking conflicted. Finally, Fitz spoke. "I knew that things were going to get awkward after the breakup. I just..."

"You still like me."

Fitz's eyes widened, and he nodded. "It was that obvious?"

"I didn't really feel like being oblivious the second time," Sophie answered quickly.

Fitz chuckled awkwardly. "Yeah, you were pretty oblivious. I think we all were, a little bit."

"Yeah. I mean, Biana still hasn't noticed that Tam likes her!" Sophie exclaimed.

"So, back to us... I still like you, and-" Fitz started.

Sophie shook her head and interrupted, "There's not an _us_ anymore. If you really love me, then you'll be okay with me liking Keefe, because I'll be happy. And when people love each other, they want each other to be happy. No matter who they're with."

Fitz smiled. "You're right. I do want you to be happy. So go out there and be happy with Keefe. You deserve it. By the way, aren't we supposed to be collecting pillows?"

Sophie whacked him with a cushion.

"It's _so_ on!" Fitz shouted, whacking her back.

"You were the one that said to get back to work!" Sophie sang. The two ran around the house, collecting pillows while simultaneously having a pillow fight. As they ran back into the main room, Sophie muttered in his ear, "And don't forget, I do still love you. As a _friend_."

"Friends," Fitz whispered as they walked into the room together. "I can definitely live with that."

Suddenly, Keefe spoke, making Sophie remember that there were other people in the room. "Took you long enough! I hope you didn't get a little _distracted_..."

His words were light, but his eyes were full of worry. As Sophie sat down next to Keefe, she said quietly, "Don't worry. When we were collecting pillows we actually worked things out and agreed that we were just friends. Well, actually, Fitz just came to terms with the fact that I like you. So now it's going to be a lot less awkward between all of us."

Keefe exhaled heavily. "That's good. For a second I thought that you were cheating on me."

"Of course no- Wait, what?" Sophie asked confusedly. "Did you just imply that we're dating?"

"Yeah, I guess," Keefe said, scratching the back of his neck and looking the ground, blushing. "I mean, we like both like each other. What else can I call you but my girlfriend?"

"You call me a lot of other things besides your girlfriend," Sophie muttered.

"Oh?" Keefe asked, raising his eyebrow amusedly.

"Let's see... You call me Foster, Mysterious Miss F..." Sophie pretended to count off the names on her finger. "Uhh... Wow, I actually can't think of any other names you call me."

"Well, now you can add 'my girlfriend' to your list," Keefe said, smiling at her. Suddenly, Sophie heard the sound of gagging, courtesy of Dex.

"No offense, guys, but please, save the little displays of affection to yourselves," Dex said. "Anyways, let's start building the fort."

The group started setting up the chairs, dragging them across the room. Sophie huffed and puffed as she finally set down her first chair in the corner of the room. "Why are these things so _heavy_?"

"Crystal is a _little_ heavier than wood," Keefe said, winking at Sophie.

"Plus, crystal doesn't kill trees," Linh said, cringing at the thought of trees being cut down. "I still don't understand how humans don't break from hurting all of those trees."

"I don't either," Sophie answered.

"Hey, I've got an idea for how we can set up the chairs," Fitz announced. "We can just use telekinesis!"

"Gosh, why didn't I think of that?" Sophie said, smacking her hand to forehead.

Fitz smirked. "Well, I've lived in the Lost Cities my whole life, and you haven't. Still, you've been here for like, four years! You think you would get used to your abilities."

"Whatever." Sophie wrapped her mental energy around the chair and levitated it to go near the first one. She and the others did this about five or six times each, and soon enough, the room was all set up for the blankets. Sophie began draping blankets across the chairs, using a sticky substance called mucksap that Biana and Tam had brought to secure the blankets in place. Soon enough, it was time to line the floor with pillows. Sophie started spreading cushions across the floor before Biana cut in. "You can't do it like that! The pattern is red, white, red, white, not red, red, red, white, white, white, red, white, white!"

"Yeah, get with the ticket, Foster!" Keefe sang from across the room.

Sophie threw a pillow at him and yelled, "Get back to work!"

She rearranged the pillows in the correct pattern, and stood back to look at her creation. Sophie had used some of the mucksap to make the blanket-ceiling high enough to stand in, and it had certainly paid off. The fort covered the whole room, and was the most roomy one she had ever seen. She looked around and saw that everyone else was done and admiring their work. A heavy silence hung in the room as everyone gazed at their creations.

Biana broke the silence by exclaiming excitedly, "We're not done yet! We still have to decorate! I have some faerystring that we can hang."

"Faerystring?" Sophie asked. "That sounds like a human thing."

Biana laughed. "The humans got their stupid ideas of fairies from somewhere. Faerystring is a decorative plant. It has buds that twinkle, and humans thought they were magic. Somehow they found out the name faerystring, and as time went by, it was shortened to faery, and the spelling changed a little bit. Most mythological stuff _does_ come from elves, although there is _some_ stuff we can't explain."

Biana scampered out of the room and quickly ran back with a pile of green rope with sparkling dots flashing from little buds. Sophie could see why humans might have thought that they were fairies, although they also reminded her of something else, something she couldn't put her finger on.

"These look like... " Sophie started. "Light strings! That's what I was thinking of!"

"Light strings?" Fitz asked confusedly.

"People put them up around their house during winter," Sophie explained. "It's some sort of holiday thing."

"Oh, I know why!" Dex suddenly announced. "Faerystring generates heat, so elves used to put them around their houses to keep them warm."

"Huh," Sophie said. "That's actually a good idea."

"Are we ever going to start putting up the faerystring instead of just talking about it?" Keefe asked. Tam rolled his eyes.

"That's a good point," Linh agreed. "Let's start."

After finishing putting up the faerystring, Biana declared the fort done. The group dragged their sleeping bags into the fort, setting them in the middle of the room, heads facing each other.

"So, what should we do now?" Dex asked after the friends had changed into their nightclothes.

"I, for one, want to take the time to appreciate Foster's sparkly alicorn onesie," Keefe said.

Sophie blushed madly. "I had nothing else to wear!"

"We'll go with that."

"I could go sneak some mallowmelt from the kitchen," Fitz suggested. Sophie nodded wildly, which produced a laugh from Fitz as he ran into the kitchen to grab the delicious pastries.

"Any activity ideas?" Sophie asked after Fitz had come back.

"I have one," Linh announced after a long silence. "How about playing 'would you rather?' We don't have to move around, and we can play it only using the faerystring glow, so it should be perfect!"

"Okay," Tam said. "I'll ask someone. Biana, would you rather..."


	7. Wake Up, Dex!

_Recap:_

 _"Okay," Tam said. "I'll ask someone. Biana, would you rather..."_

"Biana, would you rather..." Tam said, opening his mouth, shaking his head, and closing it again. "Would you rather... give up mallowmelt or give up custard bursts?"

While Biana thought, Sophie sent a pointed look at Tam.

 _Why did you change your mind?_ Sophie transmitted.

Tam stretched his shadow over Sophie and whispered, "What do you think?"

 _Let me guess, you were going to ask her something along the lines of would you rather kiss you, Keefe, or Dex?_ Sophie transmitted again.

"Umm... yeah." Tam looked at the ground embarrassedly.

 _So, why'd you change your mind?_ Sophie replied.

"Would you have asked Keefe if he would rather kiss you, Biana, or Linh?" Tam asked, raising an eyebrow.

 _Good point_ , Sophie transmitted, dropping the topic.

"Custard bursts," Biana said, bringing Sophie out of her reverie. "Hey, Sophie, would you rather live in the human world or the elven world?"

"Elven for sure," Sophie answered. "Dex, would you- Dex?"

Dex had nodded off to sleep, slouching on a stack of pillows he had made. Sophie turned her head away and coughed, trying to cover her laugh.

"Um... Dex?" Linh asked, poking him in the side. "Wake up!"

Dex's eyes snapped open. "What, huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm awake."

"Sure you were," Keefe said.

"Anyways," Sophie said. "Dex, would you rather-"

Tam rolled his eyes. "Ugh, he fell asleep _again_."

"You know what, I think it's time for us to go to sleep," Fitz said, lying down in his navy blue sleeping bag.

Sophie sighed. "You're right, guys. Night."

"Night," they all chorused.

A couple minutes passed, and Dex said suddenly, "Hey, I just woke- why are the lights off?"

"Go to sleep!" Keefe shouted.

 **A/N Something weird is going on... I thought chapter five was displayed as code by mistake, but it happened again with chapter seven. I'm really sorry, I don't know what's going on.**

 **If anyone has any idea what the heck is happening, please comment!**


	8. Confessions

**Wow, I'm so behind on reviews, sorry! Also, sorry for not updating earlier. I've had like three colds in the past month, and I haven't had any time or energy to upload (I finished writing the book a while ago. Check it out on Wattpad! Shameless self promotion...).**

 **Also, I'm so sorry about the code thing... I hope it doesn't happen with this chapter.**

 **To Ryeflight: Hahaha! Thank you!**

 **To TheNightWarrior410: Thank you so much! Thanks for the follow and favorite (and, of course, the comment)**

 **To BlackSwanGirl: We'll never know... Btw, I love your writing!**

 **To AlwaysTSK: That's really funny! Glad you liked it!**

 **To marshmallowperez5002: Sorry about that! I really don't know what's going on... So happy you like my story!**

 **To TheNightWarrior410 (again): Oh, thank you! Just a warning... the Sophitz isn't** ** _all_** **sorted out. It will be, though. Eventually... *evil author laugh***

 **To Mysterious M: Thanks! Yeah, I definitely thought about doing that at truth or dare, lol. Also, thanks for the recommendation! I'll definitely choose Star Trek. Since your comments are next to each other, I'm just going to answer the other one here, too. Sorry about the code thing... I don't know what's going on. Also, kudos to you for copying that letter by letter! That looks hard...**

 **To Guest: Ugh, I'm really sorry. It's been doing that with the code. I don't know what's going on at all.**

 **To booksaremylife: *sighs* No, you didn't download it wrong. It's been uploading as code, I don't know what's going on... Nice username, btw!**

 **To Guest: I'm really sorry about the code... I hope it gets fixed.**

 **To Red Roses1000: Wow, thanks! I'm really glad you like how the story's going. Team Foster-Keefe for the win!**

 **To Guest: Hahaha... sorry about the cliffhanger. But not really... *evil author laugh***

 **To TEAM SOPHIE: Sorry I haven't updated. I hate being sick.**

 **To Guest: Omg that's actually super accurate XD. I'm gonna go look up Fitz and the Tantrums after this.**

 **To TEAM SOPHIE: Yeah, sorry about the code. We DEFINITELY need Dex with his Techie Code skills.**

 **To The Glittery Ninja Espada: Omgomgomgomg I love your writing so much! Thank you!**

 **To TEAM SOPHIE: I'm sorry it took so long! I'm such a slacker...**

 **To Mysterious M: Yeah, I could definitely see Dex doing that. It's fine that you didn't know what was going on, I don't, either. Btw, it** ** _is_** **super nice that they let people without an account post reviews and stuff.**

 **Congratulations to you for reading through this whole thing! I really need to catch up on reviews. Seriously, though, everyone who reviews, favorites, follows, or just reads this story makes my day. Now, to the actual story part:**

Sophie woke up at around three in the morning. The room was dark, and for a second she wasn't sure where she was. As her eyes adjusted, she noticed the sleeping faces of her friends. Careful not to wake them up, she tiptoed out of the pillow fort, tripping over one of the pillows.

"Huh?" Keefe asked. "Who's up?"

"Me," Sophie said quietly.

"Foster, what are you doing up so late?" Keefe groaned, burying his face in his pillow.

"Getting some more rifflepuffs," Sophie answered.

"At two in the morning?" Keefe complained.

"Three, actually."

"Because that makes it _so_ much better."

"Whatever."

Keefe sighed. "Anyways, can I come with you? I've been up for a while."

"So have I," someone said.

"What?" Sophie asked. "Who was that?"

"Me," they said. "I mean- Biana. It's Biana."

"Why are you up?" Keefe asked.

"I dunno," Biana said wearily. "I wasn't tired."

"You sure?" Sophie asked worriedly. "You sound pretty tired to me."

"Fine." Biana sighed, her silhouette slumping as she spoke. "I was thinking. I just..."

"Yeah?" Keefe said.

She turned to Keefe. "Just seeing you and Sophie... I know that you guys like each other, and I know that I should be supportive and stuff, but..."

"But?" Sophie pressed.

"I can't!" Biana burst. "I just can't, okay? I've liked Keefe for so much longer than you, and-"

"Wait." Keefe raised an eyebrow at Biana. "You- you like me?"

Biana sighed. "Yeah."

"Oh."

The three sat quietly, going over their thoughts. Finally, Sophie broke the silence. "You know Tam likes you, right, Biana? Maybe even Dex, too."

In the dim glow emitted by the faerystring, Sophie could see Biana slump a little less, a smile peeking from her face.

"Hey, Biana, you like that?" Keefe asked, a teasing grin tugging at his lips.

"I guess, yeah," Biana said.

" _Yes_!" Tam suddenly shouted, making Sophie jump so high she almost touched the ceiling.

Biana blushed. "W-wait. You, um, heard that?"

"I woke up when Sophie woke up," Tam said sheepishly.

"What's going on?" Fitz groaned.

"Yeah..." Dex said.

Sophie groaned. "Now the only one who's not up is Linh."

"Who said I wasn't up? And Tam, why are you shouting?" Linh asked.

Tam sat up, looking down at his lap. "I may or may not have been eavesdropping on Sophie, Keefe, and Biana's conversation..."

Dex frowned. "What was it about?"

Tam sighed and said quietly, "I heard Biana get all excited about me liking her."

"You _what_?" Biana said, her eyes shooting halfway up her forehead.

"Yeah." Tam looked away, and it may have been Sophie's imagination, but all of the shadows in the room seemed to cover Tam a bit more, as if he was trying to hide himself.

"Oh." Biana seemed confused, not sure if she was supposed to be flattered or not.

"You like Biana?" Linh asked excitedly. "I knew it! Now you two can go on dates, and get on each other's matchmaking scrolls, and- omigosh, Biana, we could be sisters!"

Tam frowned. "Linh, calm down. I don't even know if she likes me like that."

"I... don't know either," Biana said. "Can you give me some time?"

Tam nodded wearily. "Some time. Yeah, that'll be good for all of us. Some time."

Sophie nodded, transmitting to Biana, _If you ever need to talk about boys, I can help you. I've already figured out my own square._

 _Square?_ Biana thought. _But only Tam likes me._

Sophie raised an eyebrow. _I have my suspicions. I'm pretty sure Dex gave up on me a long time ago, he just doesn't know it yet. And you like Keefe, right?_

 _Oh,_ Biana thought. _Yeah. Yeah, I like Keefe. I forgot about that._

Sophie smiled to herself. Dex wasn't the only one moving on from their crush, it seemed.

"Hey!" Keefe suddenly exclaimed. "Foster said she was going to get us leftover rifflepuffs. Oh, and grab some of that mashed carnissa root, too. We're hungry."

Sophie rolled her eyes. "Ugh. Fiiine."


	9. Good Morning!

**A/N The last chapter... dun dun dun! Thank you guys so much for supporting me throughout the story. Now, reviews:**

 **To TEAM SOPHIE: Thank you so much!**

Sophie woke up to a cold stream of water to her face. "Ugh! What was that for?"

Keefe smirked. "We tried to wake you up nicely like, ten times, before we gave up and dumped water on you."

Sophie rolled her eyes, grumbling as she trudged down to the Vacker kitchen along with her friends. Alden and Della were waiting for them, holding plates of purple sprouts and cups of cinnacream.

"It took you long enough to get down here," Alden said. "Your food's getting cold."

The group, still half asleep, mumbled their apologies before sitting down and starting on their food, which tasted suspiciously like steak.

"So," Della asked, turning to face Sophie. "Are you excited for the Elite Levels?"

"Yeah, I guess," Sophie said. "I'm gonna miss Grady and Edaline a lot, but I'm really looking forward to all of my new classes. And, of course, I'm going to miss Keefe and Fitz a lot."

"We all will," Linh, who was going into Level Eight, added.

"So, what classes will you be taking?" Alden asked.

"I'm dropping Agriculture and Universe for more Telepathy, Inflicting, and Enhancing training," Sophie replied. "It's going to be weird having Telepathy without Fitz."

Fitz frowned. "Ugh, I forgot about that. What are we going to do to keep our Cognate status?"

"I... honestly don't know," Sophie said. "Master Cadence hasn't taken that into account."

Alden shook his head. "If you two don't keep training together, you could lose years of hard work. We'll have to find a way to keep your bond."

"Don't worry," Fitz said. "We'll figure it out."

"So, Dex," Della asked, trying to lighten the mood. "What are your plans for the Elite levels?"

"The Council wants me to train for their team of Technopaths," Dex replied. "I'm not sure if I want to accept, though."

Sophie's eyes widened. "Why not? That's a great opportunity, you have to say yes!"

"After all of the things the Council has done to us, I'm not sure if I want to work for them. I mean, look what happened with the ability restrictor," Dex said.

"The Council has changed," Keefe piped in. "I mean, the Black Swan has been fully integrated with the Emissaries, and all of the Councilors in the Neverseen are safe in Exile."

"I just... I don't know," Dex said. "It kind of goes along with how I feel about the matchmaker's list. I know that the list won't do me any harm, but... So many people have gotten hurt because of it."

Biana coughed. "Um... speaking of that... I've decided something really important. I didn't want to say it right now, but everyone's here, so I might as well... I've decided that I want to get my matchmaker's list."

 **Yay, cliffhanger! This is the last chappie, but there** ** _will_** **be a sequel, called "The Best Match." I'll publish the chapters I've written so far soon.**


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